Historic time ball clocks up an impressive record

By Julie Power

The bright yellow time ball, weighing about 120 kilos, has been dropped without mechanical failure an estimated 55,845 times at 1pm since 1858.

Significant: Sydney Observatory's education officer Geoffrey Wyatt with the time ball, which has dropped every day for 155 years except for two years when it was out of action and required new parts.Credit:Dallas Kilponen

But human error has put the ball (now an object of national historical significance) out of action for more than two years in the past 155 years, requiring new parts to be handcrafted or forged.

"Obviously if you break something you can't pop down to Bunnings and say: can I have a mechanical gear for an 1858 Maudslay, Sons and Field time ball mechanism please?'' said the observatory's education officer Geoffrey Wyatt.

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He admits that it was his crunching of the gears 10 years ago that caused a two-year break while a new part was custom made.

The time ball was originally used by ships in Sydney Harbour to adjust their marine chronometers - invented by John Harrison to help sailors determine their longitude to sea - before they sailed. (In 1877, the ball was dropped three seconds late, requiring a correction in the next day's Herald. )

After the ball was out of action for two years, the Powerhouse Museum, which runs the observatory, decided it would continue to drop the rare time ball, now one of fewer than 10 in operation around the world.

But before staff could drop it, they would have to pass a test and get their ball licence by undergoing a practical exam with the chief curator.

Only four of the eight full-time staff members are qualified to drop the ball. To do so requires a climb up three flights of ladders to arrive at a platform with one of the best views in Sydney.

After another break this year, which took two months to repair, the ball is back in action again.

At 12.55pm every day, the ball is cranked up the post by hand or mechanically. It sits at the top of its two-metre-high post for three minutes "to get everybody's attention".

At precisely one o'clock, using the sixth pip of the ABC time signal or an iPhone app giving atomic time, the ball drops, coinciding with the firing of a cannon at Fort Denison.

In the old days, ships in the harbour and city residents would look to the ball to set their watches. And when Mr Wyatt started work at the observatory, he would get calls from locals if the ball didn't drop as scheduled.

"This was the most important timepiece in the state and some would argue in Australia," Wyatt said. "Shipping was the lifeblood of this colony, and the way that shipping made its safe voyages was to set their chronometers using this time ball.''

Mr Wyatt said the ball was "brilliant". "It is an island of 19th century science in the middle of a 21st century city. For as long as we can, we should keep it going. We are the custodians."